A COMMUNITY of monks living on a windswept island plan to bring in a satellite dish so they can watch the Pope's funeral live on TV

The monks of Caldey Island, off the Pembrokeshire coast, own a single TV set, without an aerial, and a video player used for watching pre-recorded religious programmes.

Now they are praying bad weather does not prevent a good Samaritan from setting up a temporary link to the modern world, free of charge.

The Cistercian island community follows a spartan self-sufficient regime where "idle chatter" is avoided.

But the monks turned to the telephone and the Yellow Pages in a bid to find a supplier who could put up an aerial on the monastery roof.

When that proved impossible it looked like the tight-knit community would be forced to huddle round a radio to follow the funeral service.

"The monastery roof is so high no installer had insurance which allowed them up on to it to fit an aerial," said Brother Francis, a member of the community. "Then I found someone who offered to bring over a ground satellite dish for the occasion so we can follow Friday's broadcast.